Method for making knife blades



March 30 1926. 1,578,791 E. E. WOOD I METHOD FOR MAKING KNIFE BLADES Original Filed July 25 1921 %a vvvvv-v'v INVENTOR W M M W ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LIMITED, OF TORONTO, CANADA, A CORPORATION OF ONTARIO, CANADA.

METHOD FOR MAKING KNIFE BLADES.

Original application filed July 25, 1921, Serial No. 487,363. Divided. and this a'p plication filed April 3, 1924. Serial No. 704,011.

To all wlzmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD E. VVoon, a'

citizen of the United States, residing at Northampton, in the county of Hampshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods for Making Knife Blades, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to methods for making metallic implements and with respect to its more specific features to methods for making knife blades and the like which includes a handle or tang. v

One of the objects of the invention is the provision of a practical method for fashioning knife blades accurately and expeditiously and largely as a continuous operation.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an efiicient method for fashioning knife blades accurately and expeditiously in a single rolling operation which lengthens, widens and compresses the metallic blank or stock and otherwise gives character and predetermined shape and size to the blade so that but a simple subsequent operation is required to place the blade in condition for polishing or silvering as may be desired.

Other objects of the invention will be in part obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

This application is a division of my application No. 487,363, filed July 25, 1921, method and machine for making knife blades.

The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation and order of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others thereof, which will be eX- emplified in the method hereinafter dis closed, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.

Figure 1 illustrates a blank from which the blade may be fashioned, in a position to be heated,

Fig. 2 illustrates the formation of the handle portion between dies, 7

Fig. 3 is a view of the blank with the handle formed thereon in a position to have the blade portion of the blank heated.

Fig. 4 illustrates a manner in which the rolling operation for the blade portion may be conducted,

Fig. 5 shows the blank after the blade has been formed thereof, and

Fig. 6 shows the completed knife ready for polishing and plating.

In the manufacture of knives in accordance withthis invention a piece of steel stock which may be of cylindrical section as illustrated in Fig. 1 is cut of sufficient length and thickness to be fashioned into a blade having the desired dimensions as to length, breadth and thickness as well as into a tang or handle integral with the blade. This blank 1, preferably after it has been severed, is heated, as for example by gas jets 2, to a suitable temperature to permit a handle or tang 3 to be forged upon one end thereof. This may appropriately be done in a drop forge or in a swaging machine between suitable dies 4-5. Thereafter the portion 6 of the blank which is to form the blade is heated, as by gas jets 7, to a proper temperature dependent upon the particular material of which the blank is made, and thereafter rolled as by rolls 8 and 9 into a blade of the desired dimensions. It is preferable that this rolling operation shall start at the handle end of the blade and progress outward toward its extremity, as in this manner greater accuracy in the size and shape of the finished blank is obtained.

The forging or swaging operation produces a handle of the required dimensions, but it may leave a fin around the edge where the dies meet. At the same time the rolling operation will express the metal laterally and lengthwise beyond the edge of what is to be the finished knife blade, giving the blade the appearance of Fig. 5.

The blank thus formed is therefore subjected to a trimming or punching operation for the removal of the excess metal, whereby the finished blade of Fig. 6 is obtained.

By this simple process a knife is formed having a dense, hard blade, the blank being ready for polishing and plating immediately.

Since certain changes may be made in carrying out the above method Without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimitingsense.

Having described my invention, What I ,claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of-making a blade and a supporting part such as a tang or handle integral with the blade which includes forging a portion of the length of aheatec blank into the substantial shape and dimensions of the supporting part, thereafter heatingthat portion of the blank to be hot the portion of the blank last heated'into the substantial shape and dimensions of the blade and subsequently shaping and finishing the article so formed by a trimming operation.

2. The method of making a blade and a supporting part such as a tang or handle integral with the blade which includes, forging a portion of the length of a heated blank into the substantial shape and dimensions of the supporting part, thereafter heating that portion of the blank to be fashioned into a blade'rwhile the support-- ing part remains comparatively cool, thereafter, by a singlerolling operation initiated adjacent the supporting partand progressing outwardly toward the blade tip, swaging while hot the portion of the blank last heated into the substantial shape and dimensions of the blade and subsequently shaping and finishing thearticle so formed by a trimming operation.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

EDWARD E. WOOD. 

